Driftwood cleaning

[Oli]

I have a large piece of driftwood that has been in the tank for the best part of a year.

I take it out every week for half an hour in order to vacuum the gravel easier, but since increasing my lighting to cater for new plants etc. , it has began to be covered in a fair bit of hair algae and things.

If I were to take it out and give it a good scrub using tap water, would the loss of beneficial bacteria have a noticeable impact on my cycle?

I would normally scrub it in the tank water in the tank itself, but I feel it would be easier to take it out, put it in the bathtub and give it a good hose down and scrub so I can clean all angles?

 

[Naughts]

If your tank/ cycle have been established for a year+, the loss of beneficial bacteria will have minimal disruption.
You don't happen to have shrimp do you? I have found a lazy way to clean driftwood...place in sink and pour hot kettle water over it to kill the algae, then put back in tank where the cherry shrimp will harvest the dead algae and it will all be gone in the next day or two.

 

[Oli]

This is what I was planning to do with hot water and a really good scrub. Unfortunately I don’t have any shrimp but I will be giving it a thorough clean.

I am going away for a month and want to keep things as easy as possible for my partner while I’m gone. I plan on giving the tank a deep clean before I go (large water change, thorough scrub/hot water cleanse of the drift wood, glass wipe and gravel vacuum) and then the following week cleaning the canister out. Then hopefully she can do simple water changes without having to remove the driftwood and make things too difficult for her.

 

[Colin_T]

Cleaning the driftwood won't make any difference to the filter.

Don't use hot water, just hose it off or add some Otocinclus catfish and shrimp.

 

[Lynnzer]

Cleaning the driftwood won't make any difference to the filter.

Don't use hot water, just hose it off or add some Otocinclus catfish and shrimp.

That's a bit of wishful thinking. I had a lump of bogwood in my large tank that was absolutly covered in algae, just the normal green stuff, but it also became long enough to stream outwards. Not hair algae though.
I tried boiling water. It just died and stayed on the wood where it became a nutrient source for a new growth. I had around 200 shrimp at the time as well.
In the end I had to remove it occsionally, give it a scrub with a stiff wire brush and then jet hose it.
I got sick of the damn thing after a while and took it out altogether

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HAVE YOU VOTED YET​

 

[lottabubbles]

put a couple of sailfin screamers in the tank and they will clean Everything !!!